This disclosure relates generally to social networking systems, and more specifically to selecting content items for presentation to a member of a group maintained in a social networking system.
A social networking system allows its users to connect and communicate with other social networking system users. Users create profiles in the social networking system that are tied to their identities and include information about the users, such as interests and demographic information. The users may be individuals or entities such as corporations or charities. Because of the popularity of social networking systems and the significant amount of user-specific information maintained in social networking systems, a social networking system provides an ideal forum for allowing users to create and join various groups of users (“groups”) in the social networking system who share common interests (e.g., recreational hobbies, educational backgrounds, political viewpoints, etc.). Groups maintained in a social networking system are associated with topics that are common to social networking system users who are members of the same group. For example, topics associated with groups may include interests, associations, affiliations, a common workplace, a favorite celebrity, a religious view, and/or any other characteristics common to a group of users.
Groups facilitate communication between social networking system users belonging to the same group. For example, members of a group may post content to the group, participate in group discussions, etc. When a member of a group posts or uploads content to the group, a social networking system may generate a content item describing the action. The social networking system may then select the content item for presentation to members of the group in a “group page” dedicated to the group. In addition to content items describing actions performed by members of a group, a social networking system also may select additional types of content items for presentation to members of the group. For example, if members of a group live in a particular geographic region and share a common interest in paleontology, the social networking system may select a sponsored content item for presentation to members of the group (e.g., an advertisement about a paleontology exhibit at a local museum).
Conventionally, social networking systems select content items for presentation to social networking system users based on targeting criteria associated with the content items that specify one or more attributes for social networking system users eligible to be presented with the content items. For example, targeting criteria are used to identify users associated with specific user profile information satisfying at least one of the targeting criteria. Attributes specified by targeting criteria usually are associated with social networking system users who are likely to have an interest in content items associated with the targeting criteria or who are likely to find such content items relevant. For example, content items associated with a particular restaurant may be associated with targeting criteria describing social networking system users who have expressed an interest in the restaurant (e.g., users who frequently check in to the restaurant, users who have expressed a preference for a page associated with the restaurant maintained in a social networking system, etc.).
By using targeting criteria to select content items for presentation to social networking system users who are likely to have affinities for such content items, social networking systems may encourage user engagement with the social networking systems, which may increase the number of opportunities the social networking systems have to generate revenue. For example, if a user scrolls through a content feed to view content that captures the user's interest, sponsored content items that are interspersed in the content feed also may be presented to the user. In this example, the social networking system may charge a social networking system user associated with a sponsored content item (e.g., an advertiser) for each presentation of the sponsored content item (i.e., each “impression”) to an additional social networking system user, or for each interaction with the sponsored content item by an additional social networking system user.
However, targeting criteria may not help social networking systems identify content items that are likely to be relevant to a group when information describing a topic associated with the group is absent. For example, if an administrator of a group forgets or refuses to provide information describing one or more topics associated with the group, the social networking system may not be able to determine whether attributes specified by targeting criteria associated with a content item are satisfied by information maintained in the social networking system associated with the group. In this example, if a member of the group accesses a group page associated with the group with the intent to view content related to the group, the social networking system may select content items for presentation to the member based on attributes for the member that are unrelated to a topic associated with the group. Continuing with this example, since the content items selected by the social networking system are unrelated to a topic associated with the group, the member of the group may find the presentation of these content items in the group page to be distracting and/or disruptive. As a result, the member may decide to leave the group or otherwise reduce their interaction with the social networking system. Diminished user engagement with a social networking system may decrease potential revenue to the social networking system from the presentation of sponsored content items.